WTF – Meat is the new tobacco!?!

I swear I uttered just about every curse word I know while reading an article that Ryan sent me called, “Meat is the New Tobacco.”

I try not to rip on vegetarians too often as I do firmly believe that different diets work for different people. Also, eating WHOLE FOODS is what is really important…(Of course most of the vegetarians I know eat more processed crap than most meat eaters I know…but that is a rant for a different day…)

But seriously…comparing meat to tobacco!?! How did someone even allow such a RIDICULOUS article to be published?

This article is ridiculously biased AND the research Kathy Freston cites has been criticized and torn apart.

Her first ridiculous, unfounded statement:

Animal products kill a lot more Americans than tobacco does.

The West’s three biggest killers — heart disease, cancer, and stroke — are linked to excessive animal product (this was linked to the China Study) consumption, and vegetarians have much lower risks of all three. Vegetarians also have a fraction of the obesity and diabetes rates of the general population — of course, both diseases are at epidemic levels and are only getting worse.

Do you know when the obesity and diabetes rates started shooting up?

They started increasing in the 1980’s when the consumption of RED meat started to go down. And guess what we started consuming more of in the 1980’s?

Carbohydrates in the form of refined grains and starchy vegetables and processed vegetable oils. Yep when we REPLACED animal products (butter and lard) with vegetable and seed oils (such as canola oil), we started to see an obesity and diabetes epidemic.

Those are some pretty big changes over 60 years. Health “experts” say we’re getting fatter because of too much fat in our diets and not enough heart healthy “whole grains.” Let’s break it down. (See every year here)

So our meat, egg and nut consumption has increased 4.1% since 1970

Our fruit consumption has increased 22%

Our dairy consumption has decreased 3.7%

Our vegetable consumption has decreased 2.4 percent

Our added sugar consumption has increased 14%

Our added fat consumption has increased 56.3%

Our grain consumption has increased 44.6%

So is it really meat? Or might it be the grains, sugars and processed oils?

Now onto Kathy’s obsession with Dr. T Colin Campbell and his China Study, which she claims proves the link between heart disease, cancer and stroke and consumption of animal products.

His China Study is full of holes. I found numerous articles and a WHOLE SITE dedicated to providing studies refuting the China Study.

First off, the first part of the China Study was an epidemiological study in which a questionnaire was mailed to the Chinese people asking what they ate. Off of this Dr. Campbell claims that the people who ate more meat were at higher risk for disease.

BUT he doesn’t take into consideration what else the meat eaters consumed. He also didn’t take into account what their lifestyle.

Oh and by the way….his data doesn’t actually prove what he claims it does!!

People that have analyzed the study have shown that:

Significant differences in the diet of rural Chinese populations studied suggest that wheat consumption may promote higher insulin, higher triacylglycerol, and lower SHBG values. Such a profile is consistent with that commonly associated with obesity, dyslipidemia, diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. On the other hand, the intake of rice, fish, and possibly green vegetables may elevate SHBG concentrations independent of weight or smoking habits. (From Raw Food SOS)

There are more quotes I could pull and studies I can cite, but I gave you a link to a ton so I’ll let them speak for themselves.

Only one more point about the China Study, which has to do with the second part of the study.

The other part of the China study was a rat study in which rats were either given powdered casein or gluten. The rats that consumed casein got cancer while the rats that ate gluten didn’t.

There are two problems with this. One, powdered casein isn’t a whole food and doesn’t accurately represent milk and meat! For example:milk contains vitamins A, D, E, and CLA & omega 3, which are anti-cancerous, which I’m sure the casein powder didn’t have! Secondly, the rats that ate casein, lived longer!! As with any population that lives longer, there is going to be a higher incident of disease! Any reasonable study considers mortality to be the most important factor…but not Dr. Campbell’s….

And now on to my last point…since I’m giving myself just three or I would literally write a ten page rant about this.

Going back to the initial comment that ticked me off: “Animal products kill a lot more Americans than tobacco does.”

Uhm seriously?

I would beg to differ:

According to pure vegetarian ideologists, people consuming vegetarian diet have better health and live longer than nonvegetarians, because persons consuming milk, dairy products, meat, eggs and fish are at health risk. In fact the most healthy people in Europe are inhabitants of Iceland, Switzerland and Scandinavia, consuming great amounts of food of animal origin.

So the healthiest people consume the most animal products…..Hmmm doesn’t sound like animal products are killing more people than tobacco…

Maybe we should be consuming more meat and not less…Maybe processed CRAP like grains and vegetable oils are really the reason we have such a high incidence of heart disease, cancer and stroke…

Ok…now I’m ready for all you vegetarians out there to try to refute me…bring it on!

I’m vegan, not because of health or any other argument that can be refuted for those that defend their right to kill for living, I’m vegan because I just can’t be part of the way we are leaving right now our “animality”, this is what I FEEL, and nobody can tell me the way I feel, that’s the unique argument that can be refuted, THE WAY I FEEL. Any kind of diet can be healthy if it’s taken responsibility, any kind of diet would develop health issues if you only eat “what you want”. I see it with my boyfriend, he don’t like veggies nor fruit neither tofu but love wheat and refined flours, salt and suger, for the most I told him that even not eating meat that way would make him to have a stroke, hi didn’t hear me, until he got high high high tryglicerides “I told you”. Even I know that eating more protein is needed for my bones, heart, eyes, muscles and to have a tinner waist, so I have started to include in my diet greater ammounts of veg protein, even to 25% of my daily intake and my health is being better; variety is another factor, the most variety I can get and the most natural the better, as well, include as raw veggies as cocked ones for a correct pH in my digestion. As there are lots of unhealthy vegans, there are as well so many of them being vegans for more than 20 years and haven’t developed any issue (as are guys eating a lot of corpses or even smoking hundreds of cigarrets a day are totally OK).
We have responsibility of knowing our body and eat rightly for the ideology we have, if I think that killing for surviving is wrong and that I can be healthy without killing or exploiting, I will logically look for the best combination for my own body to live that way, and if it works for me, has nothing to do that works for “Waldo”.
The studies you are putting as reference, just say, in most of them, that “there is no statistical difference”, so, why not be vegan if you have the same chances as a carnist but doing better for the animals and your own humanity? That would may not make you helthier (cause there are some genetical, geographical and social factors not inherent to your own diet), but if it brings you peace and you really think that is making you a better person and nobody is getting hurt, just do it.

killing when one does not need to kill is the issue. the problem is that humans do not need to kill yet coninue to do so for profit and pallete preference only to wonder at the suffering and violence which permeates our society. no human requires the flesh of another species to survive and thrive, and in fact the consumption of animal flesh, milk and eggs contributes to the vast majority of degenerative diseases in people (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30gEiweaAVQ).

as far as the protein argument, when do humans require the most protein (actually the correct term is “proteins” as these are referring to amino acids) in our lives? the answer is as infants when we will be gaining the most weight and muscle. how much protein does human breat milk have to support this growth-5-6% based on calories. how much protein does fruit have-around 6%. therefore if you consume only fruit and get enough calories you would get enough protein, regardless of the athletic endevour you pursue.

if you believe that humans are omnivorous, then by definition we do not need to consume animal flesh and to do so is a choice which causes tremendous suffering and environmental devastation. even if you do believe that cosuming flesh was a factor in human evolution, what occured in the past is irrelevant today when we have no need to do so -early humans used to procreate by rape so does that justify raping a person today?

“In their behavior toward creatures, all men are Nazis. Human beings see oppression vividly when they’re the victims. Otherwise they victimize blindly and without a thought.” ― Isaac Bashevis Singer

So I will make this last comment and then won’t respond again because as I said before you have your opinions and I have mine and all that your arguing with me is doing is making me MORE set in my beliefs.

But in my last comment I would like to state that the dictionary definition of omnivore states:

om·ni·vore
/ˈämnəˌvôr/
Noun
An animal or person that eats food of both plant and animal origin.

No where in that does it say that we DON’T need to consume animal flesh. Actually being an omnivore means that we do in fact need both.

I’m not even going to address your rape comment as it is too utterly ridiculous.

i am not arguing, just pointing out facts. a carnivore is the only classification of animal whom needs to consume flesh to survive-an omnivoire has no biological necessity to do so. if you do choose to eat others, the least you can do is educate yourself on the process of turning a conscious, sentient being into the lump of flesh on your plate.